Mobile-terminated packet transmission

ABSTRACT

Methods, apparatus circuitry, and storage media are described for mobile-terminated packet transmissions. In one embodiment, an apparatus of a control plane device configured to operate within an evolved packet network core identifies a first service flow event trigger associated with a first packet data unit (PDU) session and processes a path reselection for a first PDU session in response to the first service flow event trigger, wherein the path reselection determines a new gateway for the first PDU session resulting from the path reselection. Transmission of a change notification to an application server controller associated with the first PDU session is initiated in response to the path reselection. Transmission of a routing update to the new gateway in response to the path reselection is also initiated. In various embodiments, the trigger may be a mobility event, a load balancing event, or operations in association with an application server controller.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application Ser. No. 62/261,142, filed Nov. 30, 2015, andentitled “HANDLING MOBILE-TERMINATED PACKET TRANSMISSION IN A SDN-BASEDMOBILE NETWORK,” which is incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments pertain to wireless communications. Some embodiments relateto providing data in cellular and wireless local area network (WLAN)networks, including Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) LongTerm Evolution (LTE) networks and LTE advanced (LTE-A) networks as wellas fourth-generation (4G) networks and fifth-generation (5G) networks,all of which are hereinafter referred to as LTE networks. Someembodiments relate to general wireless communications and the handlingof mobile-terminated packet transmissions in a software-defined network(SDN)-based mobile network.

BACKGROUND

The use of 3GPP LTE systems (including LTE and LTE-Advanced systems) hasincreased due to an increase in both the types of user equipment (UEs)using network resources and the amount of data and bandwidth being usedby various applications, such as video streaming, operating on theseUEs. As a result, 3GPP LIE systems continue to develop, with thenext-generation wireless communication system, 5G, aiming to answer theever-increasing demand for bandwidth and flexibility in responding touser requirements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

In the figures, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numeralsmay describe similar components in different views. Like numerals havingdifferent letter suffixes may represent different instances of similarcomponcnts. The figures illustrate generally, by way of example, but notby way of limitation, various embodiments discussed in the presentdocument.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a wireless network in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates aspects of mobile-terminated packet transmissions inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates aspects of mobile-terminated packet transmissions inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates aspects of mobile-terminated packet transmissions inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates one example method of mobile-terminated packettransmissions in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates one example method of mobile-terminated packettransmissions in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates one example method of mobile-terminated packettransmissions in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 8 illustrates aspects of a user equipment (UE), in accordance withsome example embodiments.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an example computer systemmachine which may be used in association with various embodimentsdescribed herein.

FIG. 10 illustrates aspects of a UE, in accordance with some exampleembodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustratespecific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practicethem. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical,process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodimentsmay be included in, or substituted for, those of other embodiments.Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalentsof those claims.

FIG. 1 shows aspects of an example software-defined network (SDN)-basedmobile network architecture system 100 in accordance with someembodiments. SDN-based mobile network architecture system 100 includesthe following illustrated network entities: user equipment (UE) 101;radio access network (RAN) 102; software-defined network controller(SNC) 104; data gateways (DGWs) 106A-N; services interworking function(IWF) system 108;

service capability server (SCS) 110; and access servers 112A-N. Othernetwork embodiments may include additional entities and elements, orother combinations of entities and elements while still operating inaccordance with the embodiments described herein.

SDN-based mobile network architecture system 100 is implemented, in someembodiments, as a long-term evolution (LTE) network. As used herein,“LTE network” refers to both LTE and LTE Advanced (LTE-A) networks aswell as other versions of LTE networks in development, such as 4G and 5GLTE networks. The network may comprise a radio access network (RAN) 102and a core network (e.g., evolved packet core or NextGen core) coupledtogether through an interface.

The RAN 102 may include evolved node Bs (eNBs) (which may operate asbase stations) for communicating with user equipment (UE) 101. The eNBsmay include macro eNBs and low power (LP) eNBs.

The eNBs of RAN 102 (macro and micro) may terminate the air interfaceprotocol and may be the first point of contact for a UE 101. In someembodiments, an eNB may fulfill various logical functions for the RAN102 including, but not limited to, RNC (radio network controller)functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamicradio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobilitymanagement. In accordance with embodiments, the UEs 101 may beconfigured to communicate orthogonal frequency division multiplexed(OFDM) communication signals with an eNB over a multicarriercommunication channel in accordance with an orthogonalfrequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) communication technique. TheOFDM signals may comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

With cellular networks, LP eNBs of RAN 102 may be used to extendcoverage to indoor areas where outdoor signals do not reach well, or toadd network capacity in areas with dense usage. In particular, it may bedesirable to enhance the coverage of a wireless communication systemusing cells of different sizes, macrocells, microcells, picocells, andfemtocells, to boost system performance. The cells of different sizesmay operate on the same frequency band, or may operate on differentfrequency bands with each cell operating in a different frequency bandor only cells of different sizes operating on different frequency bands.As used herein, the term “LP eNB” refers to any suitable relatively LPeNB for implementing a smaller cell (smaller than a macro cell) such asa femtocell, a picocell, or a microcell. Femtocell eNBs may typically beprovided by a mobile network operator to its residential or enterprisecustomers. A femtocell may be the size of a residential gateway orsmaller and generally connects to a broadband line. The femtocell mayconnect to the mobile operator's mobile network and provide extracoverage in a range of typically 30 to 50 meters. Thus, a LP eNB mightbe a femtocell eNB. Similarly, a picocell may be a wirelesscommunication system typically covering a small area, such asin-building (offices, shopping malls, train stations, etc.), orin-aircraft. A picocell eNB may generally connect through an X2 link toanother eNB such as a macro eNB through its base station controller(BSC) functionality.

Communication over an LTE network may be split up into 10ms radioframes, each of which may contain ten 1 ms subframes. Each subframe ofthe frame, in turn, may contain two slots of 0.5 ms. Each subframe maybe used for uplink (UL) communications from the UE 101 to the eNB of RAN102 or downlink (DL) communications from the RAN 102 to the UE 101. Inone embodiment, the eNB may allocate a greater number of DLcommunications than UL communications in a particular frame. The eNB mayschedule transmissions over a variety of frequency bands. Each slot ofthe subframe may contain 6-7 OFDM symbols, depending on the system used.In one embodiment, each subframe may contain 12 subcarriers. In the 5Gsystem, however, the frame size (ms), the subframe size, and the numberof subframes within a frame, as well as the frame structure, may bedifferent from those of a 4G or LTE system. The subframe size, as wellas the number of subframes in a frame, may also vary in the 5G systemfrom frame to frame. For example, while the framc size may remain at 10ms in the 5G system for downward compatibility, the subframe size may bedecreased to 0.2 ms or 0.25 ms to increase the number of subframes ineach frame. Some embodiments may also operate with narrowband systems ina 180 kilohertz (kHz) band for machine-type or cellular internet ofthings communications.

System 100 includes a UE 101 and an a RAN 102 including one or more eNBsconnected via one or more channels to UEs including UE 101 across an airinterface. The UE 101 and eNB of the RAN 102 communicate using a systemthat supports controls for managing the access of the UE 101 to anetwork via the eNB.

SDN-bascd mobile nctwork architecture system 100, the UE 101, and anyother UEs in the system 100 may be, for example, laptop computers,smartphones, tablet computers, printers, machine-type devices such assmart meters or specialized devices for healthcare monitoring, remotesecurity surveillance systems, intelligent transportation systems, orany other wireless devices with or without a user interface. The RAN 102provides the UE 101 network connectivity to a broader network thatincludes application servers 112A-N. This UE 101 connectivity isprovided via the air interface to an eNB of RAN 102 in a service areaprovided by the eNB. In some embodiments, such a broader networkincluding the application servers 112 may be a wide area networkoperated by a cellular network provider, or may be the Internet. EacheNB service area associated with the RAN 102 is supported by antennas.The service areas are divided into a number of sectors associated withcertain antennas. Such sectors may be physically associated with fixedantennas or may be assigned to a physical area with tunable antennas orantenna settings adjustable in a beamforming process used to direct asignal to a particular sector. One embodiment of an eNB, for example,includes three sectors each covering an approximately 120-degree areawith an array of antennas directed to each sector to provide 360-degreecoverage around the eNB.

The UE 101 includes control circuitry coupled with transmit circuitryand receive circuitry. The transmit circuitry and receive circuitry mayeach be coupled with one or more antennas. The control circuitry may beadapted to perform operations associated with wireless communicationsusing congestion control. The control circuitry may include variouscombinations of application-specific circuitry and baseband circuitry.The transmit circuitry and receive circuitry may be adapted to transmitand receive data, respectively, and may include radio frequency (RF)circuitry or front end module (FEM) circuitry. In various embodiments,aspects of the transmit circuitry, receive circuitry, and controlcircuitry may be integrated in various ways to implement the circuitrydescribed herein. The control circuitry may be adapted or configured toperform various operations such as those described elsewhere in thisdisclosure related to a UE, including initiating communicationstransmitted or received by an associated antenna, processinginformation, or encoding/decoding data. The transmit circuitry maytransmit a plurality of multiplexed uplink physical channels. Theplurality of uplink physical channels may be multiplexed according totime division multiplexing (TDM) or frequency division multiplexing(FDM) along with carrier aggregation. The transmit circuitry may beconfigured to receive block data from the control circuitry fortransmission across the air interface. Similarly, the receive circuitrymay receive a plurality of multiplexed downlink physical channels fromthe air interface and relay the physical channels to the controlcircuitry. The plurality of downlink physical channels may bemultiplexed according to TDM or FDM along with carrier aggregation. Thetransmit circuitry and the receive circuitry may transmit and receiveboth control data and content data (c.g., messages, images, video, etc.)structured within data blocks that are carried by the physical channels.For a machine configured for low bandwidth or irregular communications(e.g., utility meters, stationary sensors, etc.) customized circuitryand antennas may be used to enable communications on a narrow bandwidth(e.g., 180 kHz, or other similar narrow bandwidths) to enable the deviceto consume small amounts of network resources. In various embodiments,an eNB of RAN 102 may be structured with transmit, receive, and controlcircuitry similar to the description of circuitry for a UE above.

In previous Evolved Packet Systems (EPS), a user equipment

(UE) may establish a Public Data Network (PDN) connection with a PDNgateway (P-GW) which may be associated with an Access Point Name (APN)for a service provided by the PDN. For a mobile-terminated packettransmission in the EPS, an Application Server in the PDN can transmitpackets towards a UE by the PDN connection via a P-GW in the EPS, inwhich the P-GW is static as a termination of the PDN connection.However, the user plane General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) TunnelingProtocol (GTP)-tunneling mechanism used in Evolved Packet Core (EPC)network lacks flexibility for adapting to the real-time network loadstatus.

Embodiments described herein provide improvements to resolve this issuein a software-defined network (SDN)-based architecture such as theillustrative system 100 of FIG. 1 in part by separating the controlplane signaling interface and the user plane data interface. As such, aSDN-based network controller (SNC) 104 can configure one or more datagateways (DGW) 106A-N with the routing polices that reflect a real-timeor near real-time network load status. With such a flexible design in aSDN-based architecture, an SNC 104 may determine to change a boundaryDGW (e.g., any of Data Gateways 106A-N operating as a boundary DGWserving a particular UE such as UE 101 via RAN 102) within a SDN-basedmobile network (SMN) for a flow of the service based on the optimalconfiguration of the network (e.g., for load balancing), wherein theboundary DGW in the SMN is interfacing with one or more packet datanetworks outside of the SMN (e.g., networks including any one or more ofapplication servers 112A-N). Following the principle of the separationof the control plane and user plane functions, the SNC is with thecontrol plane functions of handling the IP address allocation andpreservation. The mobile device is thus transparent to the change of thenetwork configuration (e.g. able to continue operating during the changein configuration). In some embodiments, the SNC allocates IP addressesof the requested services in the service domains within an SMN, andpreserves the allocated IP addresses of the requested services for themobile device.

In an SMN, SNC 104, the control-plane network entity, is responsible forhandling connection and session management for the mobile devices basedon the requested services. When provisioning a requested service for amobile device, an SNC determines one or more service flows, andconfigures one or more data gateways (D-GW) with the routing polices toreflect to the real-time network load status. The data gateway at theedge of the operator's mobile network is deemed as a boundary D-GW andit interfaces with one or more packet data networks outside of the SMN.Following the principle of the separation of the control plane and userplane functions, in some embodiments the SNC is with the functions ofthe internet protocol (IP) address allocation and preservation to ensurethat the registered mobile device is transparent to the change of thenetwork configuration, e.g. one or more DGWs involving the routing ofthe service flow, during the life time of the service. The centralizedarchitecture has various merits: DGWs arc simplified with a routingfunction for receiving and forwarding traffic flows in the user plane;without the IP tunnel established towards the boundary DGW, thesignaling overheads can be greatly reduced for the exchanges of the IPaddress information; it provides more flexible way of the networkdeployment for providing required network capability by adding orremoving data plane entities; and as such, network managementcomplexities can be greatly reduced.

There are also a number of scenarios that may result in the decision tochange a boundary DGW by a SNC, such as:

-   -   The boundary DGW fails due to unknown reasons;    -   The boundary DGW becomes overloaded or congested; and/or    -   In view of quality of service (QoS) provisioning, when a UE is        moving towards a proximity area close to a boundary DGW other        than an original one, and the requested service requires        stringent latency (e.g., a mission-critical service).

For a flow of a service, when a first boundary DGW (e.g., DGW 106A) ischanged by SNC 104 to a new DGW (e.g., DGW 106B), the application server(e.g., application server 112A) in the SMN may still performmobile-terminated packet transmission towards the boundary DGW whichserved the flow. As described in more detail below, in the case when thefirst boundary DGW is in a failure state, the application server mayneed to re-establish the flow to continue the service. This would inducesome delay for detecting the failure of the boundary DGW as well asre-establishing a new service flow. In the case before the firstboundary DGW is congested or overloaded, the SNC 104 may startperforming load balancing by changing the first boundary DGW to a secondboundary DGW for the service flow. The first boundary DGW may start todrop or redirect the packets of the service flow. This would induce somedelay for re-establishing a new service flow due to deteriorated QoS ofthe service flow. Flexibility for adapting to the real-time networkloads may be lacking if the SNC 104 needs to keep a same boundary DGWfor the lifetime of a service flow in the SMN. Embodiments herein enableflexibility by allowing changes between DGWs 106A-N during communicationservice flows. Example embodiments thus provide methods, apparatuses,systems, and etcetera to support mobile-terminated packet transmission.

An SNC 104 in various embodiments may thus handle the mobile terminatedpacket transmission in a SDN-based mobile network (SMN), wherein the SNC104 can configure different routing polices on one or more DGWs 106A-Nfor flow-based quality of service (QoS) provisioning. In someembodiments, the SNC 104 may initiate a notification procedure towards aservice capability server (SCS) 110 which manages a number ofapplication servers and interfaces with a service interworking functionin the SMN. Such a notification procedure may be initiated by the SNC104 in the following scenarios but not be limited to: when a SNC changesa boundary DGW for a service flow of the mobile-terminated packettransmission for load balancing or network reconfiguration; or when aSNC receives a packet redirected from a boundary DGW. In suchembodiments, the SCS 110 may reselect a new application server forcontinuing the service flow according to the received information.

In some embodiments, an SNC 104 can configure the flow profile (e.g. theprofile for a PDU session or sessions) with one or more traffic flowsbased on service subscription information for the mobile device. Thenthe SNC configures one or more DGW with the routing policies in reflectto the real-time network loads and configurations. In the flow based QoSprovisioning framework, the DGWs accommodates the traffic flows withnon-IP or IP packets. The destination of the packets to be forwarded isidentified by a flow ID so the traffic flows can carry either IP packetsor non-IP packets. For the traffic flows with IP packets, the SNC mayallocate an IP address for the requested service if IP service isrequired, and there is no existing IP address allocated for the servicesin the same service domain within the SMN. The IP address is preservedfor the life time of all the requested IP services by the SNC. Forexample, the SNC changes the boundary DGW which is within the sameservice domain and shares the same IP domains in the IP pools. Asanother example, the SNC needs to maintain a mapping tables for thechanges of the IP domains if the boundary DGW is not within the same IPdomains in the IP pools.

When receiving service request from the mobile device, the SNCconfigures the mobile originated traffic flows and mobile terminatedtraffic flows separately. The SNC determines mobile terminated and/ormobile originated traffic flows only when the mobile device hassubscribed the service features. During the service establishmentprocedure, the SNC may provide the following information towards SCS/ASvia the service-IWF: the configured IP address information of theboundary DGW; the configured traffic flows information of the service,e.g. one or more flow identities; the service ID of the requestedservice; and/or the IP address and/or flow ID of the requested servicefor the mobile device.

Service Interworking Function (Service-IWF) system 108 operates tointerface with one or more RAN 102 nodes over a Z3 interface, and gatherRadio Access Network (RAN) layer-related information. In someembodiments, system 108 is configured to interface with one or moreSDN-based network controllers (SNCs) 104 over a Z4 interface, and system108 allocates one or more SNCs 104 to locally manage the routingpolicies for transmitting user plane traffic. In some embodiments,service-IWF system 108 interfaces with a service capability server (SCS)110 and/or one or more application servers (AS) 112A-N in the Z5interface to provide access towards a UE 101 (e.g., a mobile device) inthe SDN-based mobile network of system 100. In some embodiments, serviceIWF system 108 works to: authorize the service requested by a mobiledevice over Z3/Z4 interface and/or by SCS/AS over Z8 interface;interface with subscription repository over Z6b interface toretrieve/store the service-related information, (e.g., subscription,parameters of service profile); and may be collocated with the SNC.

SCS 110 and associated application servers (AS) 112A-N work together toprovide service for UE 101 in a SDN-based mobile network architecturesystem 100 over interface Z8 in some embodiments. SCS 110 is configured,in various embodiments, to interface with service-IWF system 108 to getauthorization for the services as well as system information in the SMNand to handle the services provided by one or more ASs 112A-N or via SCS110.

In various embodiments, SNC 104 is responsible for managing localcontrol plane function for QoS provisioning and routing policies, and isconnected with service-IWF system 108 over a Z3 interface to communicatewith a SCS 110 and associated AS(s) 112A-N. In some embodiments, SNC 104is connected with one or more data gateways (DGWs) 106A-N over a Z5interface, and provides routing policies to one or more DGWs 106 A-N soas to provision QoS for a requested service of a mobile device. In somesystems, SNC 104 provides RAN 102 nodes (e.g., eNBs) the informationfrom the configured flow profile as well as the routing policiesindicating the entry DGW address per flow. In some embodiments, SNC 104interfaces with subscription repository 114 over a Z6a interface toretrieve/update the service-related subscription information locally.

RAN 102 nodes operate in various embodiments to store the receivedconfigured flow profile and the corresponding routing policies per flowof the service identified by a service identifier, and to identify thereceived user-plane traffic sending from UE 101 based on the stored flowprofile for a service. In some embodiments, RAN 102 nodes forwarduser-plane traffic towards one or more DGWs 106A-N over a Z2 interfacebased on the received flow profile and the routing policies receivedfrom the SNC 104 over a Z1 interface.

Individual DGWs (e.g., any of DGW 106A-N) interface with SNC 104 toupdate network load status (e.g., over a Z5 interface) and to enforcerouting polices received from the SNC 104. In some embodiments, DGWs106A-N interface with one or more RAN 102 nodes over Z2 interface toforward received user-plane traffic based on the configured routingpolicies.

In various embodiments of a SMN such as those that may be implemented insystem 100, a service flow of a mobile-terminated (MT) packettransmission of a requested service may be established between a UE 101in a SMN and a first application server (e.g., AS 112A) in a PDN. Afterthe MT service flow is established, the first application server 112Atransmits MT packets towards the UE 101 via a first boundary DGW (e.g.,DGW 106A) in the SMN. The SNC 104 may determine to adjust networkconfiguration by configuring one or more DGWs in various scenarios suchas during performance of load balancing between DGWs 106A-N for serviceflows based on the real-time network load status; and/or detection ofone or more DGWs 106A-N in failure.

For the service flow, when a first boundary DGW 106A is changed by SNC104, the application server 112A in the SMN may still perform MT packettransmission towards the boundary DGW 106A which served the flow. Inview of service continuity, methods and an apparatus to handle MT packettransmission are presented for when a serving boundary DGW is changedfor an existing service flow due to network reconfiguration.

FIG. 2 illustrates aspects of mobile-terminated packet transmissions inaccordance with some embodiments. FIG. 2 illustrates a method using UE101, RAN 102, SNC 104, DGWs 106A-N, services IWF system 108, SCS 110,and AS 112A-N of FIG. 1 . In other embodiments, other systems usingsimilar elements, or different combinations of system elements, may beused.

In the embodiment illustrated by FIG. 2 a message flow is established toUE 101 from a first AS 112A via a first DGW 106A and a node (e.g., aneNB) of RAN 102. This occurs in operations 120, 122, and 124. Operation120 involves AS 112A, configured for operations, to communicate asdescribed above. Operation 122 involves DGW 106A configured to manageelements of a message flow from AS 112A to UE 101 via RAN 102, andoperation 124 is a communication and messaging structure received at RAN102 from DGW 106A to be sent to UE 101. Similar communications from UE101 to AS 112A via RAN 102 and DGW 106A also occur in the oppositedirection. Following this, in the embodiment of FIG. 2 , the messageflows when the boundary DGW of the service flow is changed by the SNC104 from a first DGW 106A (e.g., due to load balancing or boundary DGWfailure, in the middle of mobile-terminated packet transmission betweenthe UE 101 and the first application server 112A) to a second (e.g., anew or different) DGW 106B are illustrated.

In response to the latest network load status, in operation 126 the SNC104 configures routing polices on one or more DGWs 106A-N for theservice flow of the service requested by UE 101. Then in operation 128,an event triggers the SNC 104 to perform a notification proceduretowards the Service Capability Server (SCS) 110 via the service-IWFsystem 108. In some embodiments, the event occurs when the SNC 104configures new routing polices on one or more DGWs 106A-N, which resultin a change of a boundary DGW for an existing service flow of UE 101(e.g., from the first boundary DGW 106A, which originally served theservice flow by the application server 112A, to the second boundary DGW106B).

The SNC 104 then encodes a message and transmits the message to providethe latest boundary DGW address (e.g., to the new DGW or second DGW106B) to the SCS 110 in operation 130. In some embodiments, this messagecomprises a Network Configuration Information Notification (NCIN)message, including a service ID, flow ID, and temporary mobile device IDused to identify a MT service flow of a particular service for a mobiledevice (e.g., for UE 101).

Then, in some embodiments, the SCS 110 determines in operation 132 tochange the serving application server from application server 112A toapplication server 112B according to the network configurationinformation about the new boundary DGW address (e.g., the Internetprotocol (IP) address for the second DGW 106B), which is associated withthe new boundary DGW. Additionally, the SCS 110 may retrieve serviceflow-related information from the AS 112A in operation 133 and transferthe flow-related information to the AS 112B in operation 134 so as tocontinue the service flow.

After this, the new flow operates in a fashion similar to the originalflow of operations 120, 122, and 124. With the new service flow, the AS112B starts to transmit MT packets in operation 135. The second DGW 106Breceives these packets from AS 112B in operation 136 and transmitselements of the message flow to the UE 101 via the second RAN 102 inoperation 138.

FIG. 3 illustrates aspects of mobile-terminated packet transmissions inaccordance with some embodiments. FIG. 3 illustrates a method using UE301, RAN 302, SNC 306, DGWs 304A-N, services IWF system 308, SCS 310,and AS 312A-N, which may be similar to the elements of FIGS. 1-2 . Inother embodiments, other systems using similar elements, or differentcombinations of system elements, may be used.

In the embodiment illustrated by FIG. 3 , just as above for FIG. 2 , amessage flow is established to UE 301 from a first AS 312A via a firstDGW 304A and a node (e.g., an eNB) of RAN 302. This occurs in operations320, 322, and 324. Operation 320 involves AS 312A configured foroperations to communicate as described above. Operation 322 involves DGW304A configured to manage elements of a message flow from AS 312A to UE301 via RAN 302. Operation 324 involves UE 301 decoding and processingthe message flow. Similar communications also occur in the oppositedirection as described for FIG. 1 . Also similarly, in response to thelatest network load status, in operation 326 the SNC 306 configuresrouting polices on one or more DGWs 304A-N for the service flow of theservice requested by UE 301.

Then in operation 327, SNC 306 receives one or more packets from thefirst boundary DGW 304A which originally served the service flowrequested by AS 312A for operation 320 due to failing to forward the MTpackets. This operates as an event to trigger the SNC 310 to performnotification procedure towards the SCS 310 via the service IWF system308 in operation 328. As part of operation 328, the SNC 306 analyzes thereceived packets from operation 327 and provides the latest boundary DGW304B address to the SCS 310 in a Network Configuration InformationNotification (NCIN) message. In some embodiments, such a network NCINmessage comprises a service ID, flow ID, and temporary mobile device ID,which are used to identify a MT service flow of a particular service fora mobile device (e.g., UE 301).

Similar to the operations of FIG. 2 , according to the networkconfiguration information about boundary DGW 304B address, the SCS 310may analyze network configurations, latencies, or other such data inoperation 330 and determine to change the AS from AS 312A to AS 312B,which is associated with the latest boundary DGW 304B. Additionally, theSCS 310 may communicate service flow-related information from the AS312A in operation 331 and transfer the flow-related information to AS312B in operation 332 so as to continue the service flow using the newAS (e.g., AS 312B), the new DGW (e.g., DGW 304B) and UE 101 incorresponding operations 334, 336, and 338 similar to the new serviceflow operations of FIG. 2 .

In additional embodiments, for a service requiring infrequenttransmission, the application server may send a MT service request viathe SCS to obtain the latest information of the boundary DGW before itstarts to transmit the MT packets. With such an approach, the latencycould be improved.

FIG. 4 shows one potential embodiment of a network configurationinformation notification procedure, which may be used to obtain thelatest network configuration information from the SMN via a one-timequery or an event trigger query. In the former case, the SCS or AS mayrequest the current address information of the boundary DGW for theservice flow at one time. In the latter case, the SCS or AS may requestthe latest address information of the boundary DGW for the service flowwhenever there is a change.

FIG. 4 illustrates such a procedure with illustrated operations betweenSNC 406, DGWs 404A-N, services IWF 408, SCS 410, and AS 412A-N, whichmay again be similar to the corresponding elements described above, ormay be implemented in various combinations including additionalelements.

In operation 420, the SCS 410 and/or a first AS 412A of a plurality ofASs 412A-N sends a request message indicating service identity, flow ID,temporary mobile device ID, policy information type, and response type.The service identity indicates an ID for the requested service, whichmay be global unique or unique within the operator domain in the PublicLand Mobile Network (PLMN). In some embodiments, the flow identityindicates, for the service flow for the service, an ID which may beallocated by the SNC 406 when establishing the service flow of theservice. In some embodiments, a temporary mobile device ID is atemporary identity allocated by the operator to which may be uniquewithin the serving PLMN. In some embodiments, a policy information typeindicates the type of policy information that is requested. In some suchembodiments, the SNC 406 replies with the address information of the DGW404A for the MT packet transmission. A response type indicates the typeof response that the SCS 410/AS 412A is requesting, such as an instantresponse or response only when there are any changes on the requestedpolicy information.

If the response type indicates as instant response in operation 420, theSNC 406 replies with a response message (e.g., comprising service ID,temp device ID, policy info, etc.) to the SCS 410/AS 412A via theservices IWF 408 in operation 422, wherein the policy information is theboundary DGW address (e.g., DGW 404A). After the SCS 410/AS 412Areceives the response message, the procedure is stopped at operation 422unless a flag or other setting indicates to continue. In otherembodiments, such a flag is not used.

In operation 424, for the response message, there may be parameters toindicate the validity of the provided network configuration information.For example, a validity timer may indicate the allowable time to applythe network configuration, and the application server needs to requestfor authorization by a third message; a scheduled time formobile-terminated packet transmission may be provided to request themobile device for sending the packets via the network configurationinformation at a scheduled time. Such a value operates as a setting orflag in various embodiments.

When the response type indicates, then whenever there is a change, theSNC 306 sets a notification flag associated to the indicated service IDand the flow ID for the UE at operation 422 and continues with operation424. In operation 426, the SNC 406 determines to configure the networkwith new routing polices on one or more DGWs 404A-N to reflect to thereal-time or near real-time network load status.

As part of operation 428, SNC 406 checks the notification flag ofoperation 424 to see if the flag is set for the service flow and checksto determine if the associated boundary DGW 404A is changed. If the flagis set and the DGW 404A is changed to a different DGW, the SNC 406 willinitiate the notification message in operation 430.

When operation 430 is triggered, the SNC 406 sends a response message(e.g., a communication comprising a service ID, temp device ID, andpolicy information) to the subscription repository to provide the policyinformation for the latest boundary DGW 404B address to the SCS 410,wherein the service ID, flow ID, and temporary mobile device ID are usedto identify a MT service flow of a particular service for a mobiledevice. Additionally, in response to the routing polices update responsemessage, the service-IWF system 408 may reply with a complete messagewith an optional indicator indicating when keeping the notification flagas active or setting it as inactive.

In some embodiments, when the application server receives thenotification message with the latest boundary DGW address, theapplication server may start to transmit MT packets via the latestboundary DGW. According to the network configuration information aboutthe boundary DGW address, the SCS 410 may determine to change theapplication server from a first

AS 412A to a second AS 412B which is associated with the latest boundaryDGW (e.g., DGW 404B). Additionally, the SNC 406 may retrieve serviceflow-related information from the AS 412A and transfcr to the AS 412B soas to continue the service flow in communication operations 430.

FIG. 5 illustrates one example method 500 of mobile-terminated packettransmissions in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments,method 500 is implemented by an apparatus of a control plane device(e.g., a baseband integrated circuit (IC) or an IC including basebandcircuitry with associated memory). In some embodiments, method 500 isimplemented as instructions in a processor-readable storage medium. Infurther embodiments, a device or server implements a control planedevice in an evolved packet core or next generation core; or anSDN-based network controller device may implement method 500.

Method 500 begins with operation 505 where circuitry operates toidentify a first service flow event trigger associated with a firstpacket data unit (PDU) session (e.g., a first service flow). Examples ofservice flow triggers include load balancing events where service flowsare distributed between gateways for improved performance, UE mobilityevents where service flows are adjusted in response to UE movement,quality of service based event triggers for system performance, and pathreselection requests initiated by AS systems (e.g., an AS controller oran SCS).

A path reselection for a first PDU session is then processed inoperation 510 in response to the first service flow event trigger ofoperation 505, wherein the path reselection of operation 510 determinesa new gateway for the first PDU session resulting from the pathreselection.

Operation 515 follows with transmission of a change notification to anapplication server controller (e.g., an SCS) associated with the firstPDU session in response to the path reselection. In operation 520,transmission of a routing update to the new DGW is initiated in responseto the path reselection. As described above, in various embodiments, thechange notification for the application server controller may include aservice identifier (ID), a flow ID, and a temporary mobile device ID tobe used to identify a mobile termination (MT) for the service flow ofthe UE.

FIG. 6 illustrates another example method 600 of mobile-terminatedpacket transmissions in accordance with some embodiments. Method 600describes a complementary method that may be performed by an SCS orapplication server controller in conjunction with SNC operations ofmethod 500 above or method 700 below. In some embodiments, method 600 isimplemented by an apparatus of an SCS or AS controller (e.g., a basebandintegrated circuit (IC) or an IC including baseband circuitry withassociated memory in such systems). In some embodiments, method 600 isimplemented as instructions in a processor-readable storage medium. Invarious embodiments, any machine or device described herein, such asmachine 900 of FIG. 9 or UE 1000 of FIG. 10 , may be speciallyconfigured to implement various embodiments such as method 600.

Method 600 begins with operation 605 to decode/process a service flowsetup notification (e.g., a user plane (UP) setup information) from acontrol plane device for a first service flow (e.g., a first PDNconnection) to a first UE. Then in operation 610, the first service flowis configured for the service flow from a first application server to afirst gateway in response to the service flow setup notification. Inoperation 615 a service flow change notification from the control planedevice is decoded and processed at the AS controller.

The first service flow is then reconfigured in operation 620 to changethe first application server to a second application server, whichconfigures the first service flow from the second application server tothe first gateway in response to the service flow setup notification.

FIG. 7 illustrates another example method 700 of mobile-terminatedpacket transmissions in accordance with some embodiments. Just asdescribed above for FIG. 5 , in some embodiments method 700 isimplemented by an apparatus of a control plane device (e.g., a basebandintegrated circuit (IC) or an IC including baseband circuitry withassociated memory). In some embodiments, method 700 is implemented asinstructions in a processor-readable storage medium. In furtherembodiments, a device or server implementing a control plane device inan LTE evolved packet core or next generation core, or an SDN-basednetwork controller device, may implement method 700. In variousembodiments, any machine or device described herein, such as machine 900or UE 1000, may be specially configured to implement various embodimentssuch as method 700.

In method 700, a routing policy is configured in operation 705 for oneor more data gateways (DGWs), wherein the routing policy is to indicatea second DGW to take over service, from a first DGW, of a service flowof a user equipment (UE), wherein the first DGW and the second DGW areamong the one or more DGWs. A notification procedure is then configuredin operation 710 including sending a request to perform the notificationprocedure to a services capability server (SCS) via a servicesinterworking function (services-IWF).

Operation 715 then involves transmitting a NCIN message to the SCS(e.g., UP setup notification information to the AS controller), whereinthe NCIN message includes a service identifier (ID), flow ID, andtemporary mobile device ID to be used to identify a mobile termination(MT) for the service flow of the UE.

In various other embodiments, in any of the methods described above,various operations may be repeated, or separated by other operations.The operations may additionally be performed by one or more processorscoupled to one or more associated memories in any way to implement suchoperations. Such operations may thus be implemented by the speciallyconfigured circuitry of an apparatus in any machine or apparatusdescribed herein such as machine 900 of FIG. 9 or the UE 1000 of FIG. 10.

EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

Example 1 may include a Method for handling Mobile-Terminated PacketTransmission in a software defined network (SDN)-based Mobile Networkfor a first network entity is to trigger a notification procedure toprovide a second network entity the network configuration informationfor mobile-terminated packet transmission according to the latestnetwork configuration.

Example 2 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein the network configuration information is the address ofone or more boundary data gateway per flow of the service.

Example 3 may include the method of example 2 or some other exampleherein, wherein the service flow is identified by at least one of thefollowing information: service identity, flow identity, temporary mobiledevice identity.

Example 4 may include the method of example 3 or some other exampleherein, wherein the notification procedure is triggered by the firstnetwork entity by detecting at least one of the following event: aboundary DGW of the service flow is changed, the first network entityreceives one or more packets sending from the first boundary DGW whichmay indicate the failure forwarding polices, a notification flag is setas active.

Example 5 may include a Method and Apparatus for handlingMobile-Terminated Packet Transmission in a SDN-based Mobile Network fora first network entity is to trigger a notification procedure by sendinga first message to a second network entity about the networkconfiguration information for mobile-terminated packet transmission whenreceiving a second message from the second network entity.

Example 6 may include the method of example 5 or some other exampleherein, wherein the network configuration information is the address ofone or more boundary data gateway per flow of the service, wherein theservice flow is identified by at least one of the following information:service identity, flow identity, temporary mobile device identity.

Example 7 may include the method of example 6 or some other exampleherein, wherein the second message includes at least one of thefollowing information: service identity, flow ID, temporary mobiledevice ID, policy info type, and response type; wherein the responsetype indicates the expected response message is for instant one-timereport or whenever there is a change on the requested policy info type.

Example 8 may include the method of example 7 or some other exampleherein, wherein the first message is in responding to the receivedsecond message, and may contain at least one of the followinginformation: temporary mobile device identity, service identity, networkconfiguration information, a validity timer for the provided networkconfiguration, and a scheduled time for mobile-terminated packettransmission; wherein the validity timer indicates the allowable time toapply the network configuration, and the application server needs torequest for authorization by a third message; the scheduled time formobile-terminated packet transmission is provided to request the mobiledevice for sending the packets via the network configuration informationat a scheduled time.

Example 9 may include a method to be performed by a Software DefinedNetwork (SDN) Network Controller (SNC) comprising: configuring orcausing to configure a routing policy for one or more data gateways(DGWs), wherein the routing policy is to indicate a second DGW to takeover service, from a first DGW, of a service flow of a user equipment(UE), wherein the first DGW and the second DGW are among the one or moreDGWs; initiating or causing to initiate a notification procedureincluding sending a request to perform the notification procedure to aservices capability server (SCS) via a services interworking function(services-IWF).

Example 10 may include the method of example 9 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein the method further comprises: transmitting orcausing to transmit a Network Configuration Information Notification(NCIN) message to the SCS, wherein the NCIN message includes a serviceidentifier (ID), flow ID, and temp mobile device ID to be used toidentify a mobile termination (MT) for the service flow of the UE,

wherein the SCS is to determine, based on the NCIN message, to change aserving Application Server (AS) for the service flow to a second AS froma first AS, wherein the second AS is associated with the second DGW,wherein the SCS is to retrieve service flow related information from thea second AS and transfer the service flow related information to thefirst AS so as to continue the service of the service flow, andwherein the first AS is to start to transmit mobile-terminated packetsvia the first DGW.

Example 11 may include the method of example 10 and/or some otherexamples herein, further comprising:

detecting or causing to detect a trigger event, wherein the initiatingis based on the trigger event, and wherein the trigger event includesthe configuring of the routing polices on the one or more DGWs.

Example 12 may include the method of example 10 and/or some otherexamples herein, further comprising:detecting or causing to detect atrigger event, wherein the initiating is based on the trigger event, andwherein the trigger event includes receiving, by the SNC, one or morepackets from the first DGW which originally served the service flowrequested by the first AS, wherein the one or more packets are to besent by the first DGW due to a failure.

Example 13 may include the method of example 12 and/or some otherexamples herein, further comprising: analyzing the received one or morepackets; and providing or causing to provide, a latest boundary DGWaddress to the SCS in the NCIN message, wherein the service ID, flow ID,and temp mobile device ID are used to identify a MT service flow of theservice flow.

Example 14 may include the method of example 13 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein, based on the boundary DGW address in the NCINmessage, the SCS is to determine to change a serving AS from the firstAS to the second AS wherein the latest boundary DGW is the second DGW,and the SCS is to retrieve service flow related information from thefirst AS and transfer the service flow related information to the secondAS.

Example 15 may include the method of example 13 or 14 and/or some otherexamples hcrcin, wherein, the second AS is to send an MT service requestvia the SCS to obtain the latest information of the latest boundary DGWbefore the latest boundary DGW begins transmission of MT packets.

Example 16 may include the method of one of examples 9-13 and/or someother examples herein, further comprising:

receiving or causing to receive, from the SCS or an AS of a plurality ofASs, a request message indicating a service ID, the flow ID, thetemporary mobile device ID, policy info type, and/or a response type;and when the response type indicates an instant response, transmittingor causing to transmit a response message to the SCS or the AS via theService-IWF.

Example 17 may include the method of one of examples 9-13 and/or someother examples herein, further comprising: receiving or causing toreceive, from the SCS or an AS of a plurality of ASs, a request messageindicating a service ID, the flow ID, the temporary mobile device ID,policy info type, and/or a response type; and when the response typeindicates there is a change, setting or causing to set a notificationflag associated with the service ID and the flow ID; determining orcausing to determine to configure new routing polices for the one ormore DGWs based on a real-time network load status; updating or causingto update a reconfiguration by updating the routing policies to the newrouting policies based on the determining; determining or causing todetermine whether the notification flag is set for the service flow andwhether the associated boundary DGW has changed; transmitting or causingto transmit the NCIN message when the notification flag is set for theservice flow and when the associated boundary DGW has changed.

Example 18 may include the method of example 17 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein the transmitting or causing to transmit theNCIN message comprises: transmitting or causing to transmit a responsemessage including the service ID, the temp mobile device ID, the PolicyInfo to the services-IWF to provide the Policy info for the latestboundary DGW address to the SCS, wherein the service ID, the flow ID,and the temp mobile device ID are used to identify a MT service flow ofthe service.

Example 19 may include the method of examples 17 or 18 and/or some otherexamples hcrcin, wherein, in response to a Routing Polices UpdateResponse message, the Service-IWF is to send a Complete message with anoptional indicator indicating whether the notification flag should bekept active to set the notification flag as inactive.

Example 20 may include the method of any one of examples 16-19 and/orsome other examples herein, wherein the service identity indicates an IDfor a requested service, which is global unique or unique within anoperator domain in a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN); the flowidentity indicates an ID of the service flow for the service which isallocated by the SNC when establishing the service flow of the service;the temporary mobile device ID is a temporary identity allocated by theoperator domain which is unique within a serving PLMN; the policyinformation type indicates a type of policy information that isrequested; and the response type indicates a type of response that theSCS and/or AS requests including an instant response or response onlywhen there are any changes to the requested policy information.

Example 21 may include the method of any one of examples 16-20 and/orsome other examples herein, wherein the policy information indicates anaddress of the latest boundary DGW.

Example 22 may include the method of any one of examples 16-21 and/orsome other examples herein, wherein the response message includesparameters to indicate a validity period of the provided networkconfiguration information, wherein a validity timer is to indicate anallowable time to apply the network configuration, and wherein thevalidity period is to indicate a scheduled time for MT packettransmission to request the UE to send the MT packets via the networkconfiguration information at the scheduled time.

Example 23 may include the method of any one of examples 16-22 and/orsome other examples herein, wherein the first AS and the second AS areto communicate with the SCS over a Z7 interface, wherein the SCS is tocommunicate with the Service-1WF over a Z8 interface, wherein theService-IWF is to communicate with a radio access network (RAN) nodeover a Z3 interface, wherein the Service-IWF is to communicate with asubscription repository over a Z6b interface, wherein the Service-IWF isto communicate with the SNC over a Z4 interface, wherein the SNC is tocommunicate with the subscription repository over a Z6a interface,wherein the SNC is to communicate with the RAN node over a Z1 interface,and wherein the SNC is to communicate with the first DGW and the secondDGW over a Z5 interface.

Example 24 may include an apparatus to be implemented by a SoftwareDefined Network (SDN) Network Controller (SNC) comprising: controlcircuitry to configure a routing policy for one or more data gateways(DGWs), wherein the routing policy is to indicate a second DGW to takeover service, from a first DGW, of a service flow of a user equipment(UE), wherein the first DGW and the second DGW are among the one or moreDGWs; and initiate a notification procedure including sending a requestto perform the notification procedure to a services capability server(SCS) via a services interworking function (services-IWF).

Example 25 may include the apparatus of example 24 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein the control circuitry is to control interfacecircuitry to transmit a Network Configuration Information Notification(NCIN) message to the SCS, wherein the NCIN message includes a serviceidentifier (ID), flow ID, and temp mobile device ID to be used toidentify a mobile termination (MT) for the service flow of the UE,wherein the SCS is to determine, based on the NCIN message, to change aserving Application Server (AS) for the service flow to a second AS froma first AS, wherein the second AS is associated with the second DGW,wherein the SCS is to retrieve service flow related information from thea second AS and transfer the service flow related information to thefirst AS so as to continue the service of the service flow, and whereinthe first AS is to start to transmit mobile-terminated packets via thefirst DGW.

Example 26 may include the apparatus of example 25 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein the control circuitry is to detect a triggerevent, wherein the initiating is based on the trigger event, and whereinthe trigger event includes the configuring of the routing polices on theone or more DGWs.

Example 27 may include the apparatus of example 25 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein the control circuitry is to detect a triggerevent, wherein the initiating is based on the trigger event, and whereinthe trigger event includes receiving, by the SNC, one or more packetsfrom the first DGW which originally served the service flow requested bythe first AS, wherein the one or more packets are to be sent by thefirst DGW due to a failure.

Example 28 may include the apparatus of example 27 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein the control circuitry is to analyze thereceived one or more packets; and provide, a latest boundary DGW addressto the SCS in the NON message, wherein the service ID, flow ID, and tempmobile device ID are used to identify a MT service flow of the serviceflow.

Example 29 may include the apparatus of example 28 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein, based on the boundary DGW address in the NCINmessage, the SCS is to determine to change a serving AS from the firstAS to the second AS wherein the latest boundary DGW is the second DGW,and the SCS is to retrieve service flow related information from thefirst AS and transfer the service flow related information to the secondAS.

Example 30 may include the apparatus of example 28 or 29 and/or someother examples herein, wherein, the second AS is to send an MT servicerequest via the SCS to obtain the latest information of the latestboundary DGW before the latest boundary DGW begins transmission of MTpackets.

Example 31 may include the apparatus of one of examples 24-28 and/orsome other examples herein, wherein the control circuitry is to controlthe interface circuitry to receive, from the SCS or an AS of a pluralityof ASs, a request message indicating a service ID, the flow ID, thetemporary mobile device ID, policy info type, and/or a response type;and when the response type indicates an instant response, the controlcircuitry is to control the interface circuitry to transmit a responsemessage to the SCS or the AS via the Service-IWF.

Example 32 may include the apparatus of one of examples 24-28 and/orsome other examples herein, wherein the control circuitry is to controlthe interface circuitry to receive, from the SCS or an AS of a pluralityof ASs, a request message indicating a service ID, the flow ID, thetemporary mobile device ID, policy info type, and/or a response type;and when the response type indicates there is a change, the controlcircuitry is to set a notification flag associated with the service IDand the flow ID; determine to configure new routing polices for the oneor more DGWs based on a real-time network load status; update areconfiguration by updating the routing policies to the new routingpolicies based on the determining; determine whether the notificationflag is set for the service flow and whether the associated boundary DGWhas changed; and control the interface circuitry to transmit the NCINmessage when the notification flag is set for the service flow and whenthe associated boundary DGW has changed.

Example 33 may include the apparatus of example 32 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein the control circuitry is to control theinterface circuitry to transmit a response message including the serviceID, the temp mobile device ID, the Policy Info to the services-IWF toprovide the Policy info for the latest boundary DGW address to the SCS,wherein the service ID, the flow ID, and the temp mobile device ID areused to identify a MT service flow of the service.

Example 34 may include the apparatus of examples 32 or 33 and/or someother examples herein, wherein, in response to a Routing Polices UpdateResponse message, the Scrvicc-IWF is to send a Complete message with anoptional indicator indicating whether the notification flag should bekept active to set the notification flag as inactive.

Example 35 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 31-34 and/orsome other examples herein, wherein the service identity indicates an IDfor a requested service, which is global unique or unique within anoperator domain in a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN); the flowidentity indicates an ID of the service flow for the service which isallocated by the SNC when establishing the service flow of the service;the temporary mobile device ID is a temporary identity allocated by theoperator domain which is unique within a serving PLMN; the policyinformation type indicates a type of policy information that isrequested; and the response type indicates a type of response that theSCS and/or AS requests including an instant response or response onlywhen there are any changes to the requested policy information.

Example 36 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 31-20 and/orsome other examples herein, wherein the policy information indicates anaddress of the latest boundary DGW.

Example 37 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 31-21 and/orsome other examples herein, wherein the response message includesparameters to indicate a validity period of the provided networkconfiguration information, wherein a validity timer is to indicate anallowable time to apply the network configuration, and wherein thevalidity period is to indicate a scheduled time for MT packettransmission to request the UE to send the MT packets via the networkconfiguration information at the scheduled time.

Example 38 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 31-22 and/orsome other examples herein, wherein the first AS and the second AS areto communicate with the SCS over a Z7 interface, wherein the SCS is tocommunicate with the Service-IWF over a Z8 interface, wherein theService-IWF is to communicate with a radio access network (RAN) nodeover a Z3 interface, wherein the Service-IWF is to communicate with asubscription repository over a Z6b interface, wherein the Service-IWF isto communicate with the SNC over a Z4 interface, wherein the SNC is tocommunicate with the subscription rcpository over a Z6a interface,wherein the SNC is to communicate with the RAN node over a Z1 interface,and wherein the SNC is to communicate with the first DGW and the secondDGW over a Z5 interface.

Example 39 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one ormore elements of a method described in or related to any of examples1-23, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 40 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, uponexecution of the instructions by one or more processors of theelectronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method describedin or related to any of examples 1-23, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 41 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, and/orcircuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in orrelated to any of examples 1-23, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 42 may include a method, technique, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-23, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 43 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processorsand one or more computer readable media comprising instructions that,when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-23, or portions thereof.

Example 44 may include a method of communicating in a wireless networkas shown and described herein.

Example 45 may include a system for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

Example 46 may include a device for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

Example 47 is apparatus for handling Mobile-Terminated PacketTransmission in a SDN-based Mobile Network for a first network entity isto trigger a notification procedure to provide a second network entitythe network configuration information for mobile-terminated packettransmission according to the latest network configuration.

Example 48 is the network configuration information is the address ofone or more boundary data gateway per flow of the service.

Example 49 is the service flow is identified by at least one of thefollowing information: service identity, flow identity, temporary mobiledevice identity.

Example 50 is the notification procedure is triggered by the firstnetwork entity by detecting at least one of the following event: aboundary DGW of the service flow is changed, the first network entityreceives one or more packets sending from the first boundary DGW whichmay indicate the failure forwarding polices, a notification flag is setas active.

Example 51 is apparatus for handling Mobile-Terminated PacketTransmission in a SDN-based Mobile Network for a first network entity isto trigger a notification procedure by sending a first message to asecond network entity about the network configuration information formobile-terminated packet transmission when receiving a second messagefrom the second network entity.

Example 52 is the network configuration information is the address ofone or more boundary data gateway per flow of the service, wherein theservice flow is identified by at least one of the following information:service identity, flow identity, temporary mobile device identity.

Example 53 is the second message includes at least one of the followinginformation: service identity, flow ID, temporary mobile device ID,policy info type, and response type; wherein the response type indicatesthe expected response message is for instant one-time report or wheneverthere is a change on the requested policy info type.

Example 54 is the first message is in responding to the received secondmessage, and may contain at least one of the following information:temporary mobile device identity, service identity, networkconfiguration information, a validity timer for the provided networkconfiguration, and a scheduled time for mobile-terminated packettransmission; wherein the validity timer indicates the allowable time toapply the network configuration, and the application server needs torequest for authorization by a third message; the scheduled time formobile-terminated packet transmission is provided to request the mobiledevice for sending the packets via the network configuration informationat a scheduled time.

Example 55 is an apparatus of a control plane device configured tooperate within an evolved packet network core, the apparatus comprising:a memory; and processing circuitry in communication with the memory andarranged to: identify a first service flow event trigger associated witha first packet data unit (PDU) session; process a path reselection forthe first PDU session in response to the first service flow eventtrigger, wherein the path reselection determines a new gateway for thefirst PDU session resulting from the path reselection; initiatetransmission of a change notification to an Application Server (AS)controller associated with the first PDU session in response to the pathreselection; and initiate transmission of a routing update to the newgateway in response to the path reselection.

In Example 56, the subject matter of Example 55 optionally includeswherein the memory is configured to store an identifier associated withthe first PDU session; and wherein the first service flow event triggercomprises a load balancing event.

In Example 57, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 55-56optionally include wherein the first service flow event triggercomprises a user equipment mobility event.

In Example 58, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 55-57optionally include wherein the first service flow event triggercomprises receipt of a path reselection request from the AS controller.

In Example 59, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 55-58optionally include-4 wherein the processing circuitry is furtherarranged to: process a PDU session establishment request from a firstuser equipment (UE); and initiate establishment of the first PDU sessionusing a first gateway in response to the PDU session establishmentrequest prior to receipt of the first service flow event trigger.

In Example 60, the subject matter of Example 59 optionally includeswherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to initiateestablishment of a second PDU session for the first UE.

In Example 61, the subject matter of Example 60 optionally includeswherein the processing circuitry further manages internet protocol (IP)address assignments for the first UE as part of the path reselection.

In Example 62, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 59-61optionally include wherein the processing circuitry is further arrangedto: configure a set of routing policies on at least the first gatewayand the new gateway prior to receipt of the first service flow eventtrigger.

In Example 63, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 55-62optionally include-4 wherein the processing circuitry is furtherarranged to: process a change notification from the AS controllerindicating reallocation of the first PDU session from a firstapplication server to a second application server; wherein the routingupdate to the new gateway further comprises the change notification.

In Example 64, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 55-63optionally include-2 and 4 wherein the first service flow event triggercomprises a gateway failure event.

In Example 65, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 55-64optionally include and 3 wherein the first service flow event triggercomprises a quality of service latency trigger associated with amission-critical latency threshold.

In Example 66, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 55-65optionally include, further comprising: an antenna configured totransmit a routing update to the new gateway; and radio frequency (RF)circuitry coupling the processing circuitry to the antenna; wherein theprocessing circuitry is configured as part of baseband circuitry of theapparatus.

Example 67 is a computer-readable storage medium comprising instructionsthat, when executed by one or more processors, cause an apparatus of aSoftware-Defined Network (SDN) Network Controller (SNC) to performoperations within a long-term evolution (LTE) evolved packet core (EPC)network, the apparatus configured to: identify a first event associatedwith a first service flow for a user equipment (UE), the eventcomprising a load balancing event or a mobility event; process a pathreselection for the first service flow in response to the first event,wherein the path reselection determines a new data gateway (D-GW) forthe first service flow resulting from the path reselection; initiatetransmission of a change notification to a Service Capability Server(SCS) serving an Application Server (AS), wherein the AS is associatedwith the first service flow in response to the path reselection; andinitiate transmission of a routing update to the new D-GW in response tothe path reselection.

In Example 68, the subject matter of Example 67 optionally includeswherein change notification for the SCS includes a service identifier(ID), a flow ID, and a temporary mobile device ID to be used to identifya mobile termination (MT) for the first service flow of the UE.

In Example 69, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 67-68optionally include wherein the first event associated with the firstservice flow comprises a load balancing event or a user equipmentmobility event; and wherein the processing circuitry is further arrangedto: process a packet data unit (PDU) session establishment request froma first UE; initiate establishment of a first PDU session using a firstgateway in response to the PDU session establishment request prior toreceipt of the first service flow event trigger; and initiateestablishment of a second PDU session for the first UE.

Example 70 is a method to be performed by a Software Defined Network(SDN) Network Controller (SNC) comprising: configuring a routing policyfor one or more data gateways (DGWs), wherein the routing policy is toindicate a second DGW to take over service, from a first DGW, of aservice flow of a user equipment (UE), wherein the first DGW and thesecond DGW are among the one or more DGWs; initiating a notificationprocedure including sending a request to perform the notificationprocedure to a services capability server (SCS) via a servicesinterworking function (services-IWF); and transmitting a NetworkConfiguration Information Notification (NCIN) message to the SCS,wherein the NCIN message includes a service identifier (ID), flow ID,and temporary mobile device ID to be used to identify a mobiletermination (MT) for the service flow of the UE.

In Example 71, the subject matter of Example 70 optionally includeswherein the SCS is to determine, based on the NCIN message, to change aserving Application Server (AS) for the service flow to a second AS froma first AS, wherein the second AS is associated with the second DGW;wherein the SCS is to retrieve service flow-related information from thesecond AS and transfer the service flow-related information to the firstAS so as to continue the service of the service flow, and wherein thefirst AS is to start to transmit mobile-terminated packets via the firstDGW.

In Example 72, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 70-71optionally include further comprising: detecting a trigger event,wherein the initiating is based on the trigger event, and wherein thetrigger event includes receiving, by the SNC, one or more packets fromthe first DGW which originally served the service flow requested by thefirst AS, wherein the one or more packets are to be sent by the firstDGW due to a failure; analyzing the received one or more packets; andproviding, or causing to provide, a latest boundary DGW address to theSCS in the NCIN message, wherein the service ID, flow ID, and temporarymobile device ID are used to identify the MT for the service flow of theUE; wherein, based on the boundary DGW address in the NCIN message, theSCS is to determine to change a serving AS from the first AS to thesecond AS wherein the latest boundary DGW address is the second DGW, andthe SCS is to retrieve service flow-related information from the firstAS and transfer the service flow-related information to the second AS;and wherein the second AS is to send an MT service request via the SCSto obtain the latest information of the latest boundary DGW addressbefore the latest boundary DGW address begins transmission of MTpackets.

In Example 73, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 70-72optionally include further comprising: receiving, from the SCS or an ASof a plurality of ASs, a request message indicating a service ID, theflow ID, the temporary mobile device ID, policy information type, and/ora response type; when the response type indicates there is a change,setting a notification flag associated with the service ID and the flowID; determining new routing polices for the one or more DGWs based on areal-time network load status; updating a reconfiguration by updatingrouting policies to the new routing policies based on the determining;determining whether the notification flag is set for the service flowand whether an associated boundary DGW has changed;

and transmitting the NCIN message when the notification flag is set forthe service flow and when the associated boundary DGW has changed.

In Example 74, the subject matter of Example 73 optionally includes,wherein the transmitting the NCIN message comprises: transmitting aresponse message including the service ID, the temporary mobile deviceID, and the policy information to the services-IWF to provide policyinformation for the latest boundary DGW address to the SCS, wherein theservice ID, the flow ID, and the temporary mobile device ID are used toidentify an MT service flow of the service; wherein, in response to aRouting Polices Update Response message, the services-IWF is to send aComplete message with an optional indicator indicating whether thenotification flag should be kept active to set the notification flag asinactive; wherein the service ID indicates an identity for a requestedservice, which is global unique or unique within an operator domain in aPublic Land Mobile Network (PLMN); the flow ID indicates an identity ofthe service flow for the service which is allocated by the SNC whenestablishing the service flow of the service; the temporary mobiledevice ID is a temporary identity allocated by an operator domain whichis unique within a serving PLMN; the policy information type indicates atype of policy information that is requested; and the response typeindicates a type of response that the SCS and/or AS requests includingan instant response or response only when there are any changes torequested policy information; and wherein the policy informationindicates the latest boundary DGW address.

In Example 75, the subject matter of Example 74 optionally includeswherein the response message includes parameters to indicate a validityperiod of provided network configuration information, wherein a validitytimer is to indicate an allowable time to apply a network configuration,and wherein the validity period is to indicate a scheduled time for MTpacket transmission to request the UE to send MT packets via the networkconfiguration information at the scheduled time.

Example 76 is an apparatus of a Service Capability Server (SCS), theapparatus comprising: a memory; and processing circuitry incommunication with the memory and arranged to: process a service flowsetup notification from a control plane device for a first service flowto a first user equipment (UE);

configure the first service flow from a first application server to afirst gateway in response to the service flow setup notification;process a service flow change notification from the control planedevice; and reconfigure the first service flow to change the firstapplication server to a second application server to configure the firstservice flow from the second application server to the first gateway inresponse to the service flow setup notification.

In Example 77, the subject matter of Example 76 optionally includeswherein the service flow setup notification comprises user plane (UP)setup notification information for the first UE.

Example 78 is an apparatus of a control plane device configured tooperate within an evolved packet network core, the apparatus comprising:

means for identifying a first service flow event trigger associated witha first packet data unit (PDU) session; means for processing a pathreselection for the first PDU session in response to the first serviceflow event trigger, wherein the path reselection determines a newgateway for the first PDU session resulting from the path reselection;and means for initiating transmission of a change notification to anApplication Server (AS) controller associated with the first PDU sessionin response to the path reselection and transmission of a routing updateto the new gateway in response to the path reselection.

In Example 79, the subject matter of Example 78 optionally includesfurther comprising a memory is configured to store an identifierassociated with the first PDU session; wherein the first service flowevent trigger comprises a load balancing event.

In Example 80, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 78-79optionally include wherein the first service flow event triggercomprises a user equipment mobility event.

In Example 81, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 78-80optionally include wherein the first service flow event triggercomprises receipt of a path reselection request from the AS controller.

In Example 82, the subject matter of Example undefined optionallyincludes further comprising: means for processing a PDU sessionestablishment request from a first user equipment (UE); and means forinitiating establishment of the first PDU session using a first gatewayin response to the PDU session establishment request prior to receipt ofthe first service flow event trigger.

In Example 83, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 78-82optionally include further comprising means for establishing a secondPDU session for the first UE copcnding with the first PDU session.

In Example 84, the subject matter of Example 83 optionally includesfurther comprising means for internet protocol (IP) address assignmentsfor the first UE as part of the path reselection.

In Example 85, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 83-84optionally include further comprising means for configuring a set ofrouting policies on at least the first gateway and the new gateway priorto receipt of the first service flow event trigger.

In Example 86, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 78-85optionally include further comprising: means for processing a changenotification from the AS controller indicating reallocation of the firstPDU session from a first application server to a second applicationserver;

wherein the routing update to the new gateway further comprises thechange notification.

In Example 87, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 78-86optionally include, further comprising: an antenna configured totransmit a routing update to the new gateway; application processingcircuitry configured to use data from the first PDU session; and adisplay configure to display a user interface using at least a portionof the data from the first PDU session.

Example 88 is a method for Software-Defined Network (SDN) NetworkController (SNC) operations within a long-term evolution (LTE) evolvedpacket core (EPC) network, the method comprising: identifying, usingprocessing circuitry, a first event associated with a first service flowfor a user equipment (UE), the event comprising a load balancing eventor a mobility event; processing, using the processing circuitry, a pathreselection for the first service flow in response to the first event,wherein the path reselection determines a new data gateway (D-GW) forthe first service flow resulting from the path reselection; initiatingtransmission, using the processing circuitry, of a change notificationto a Service Capability Server (SCS) serving an Application Server (AS),wherein the AS is associated with the first service flow in response tothe path reselection; and initiating transmission, using the processingcircuitry, of a routing update to the new D-GW in response to the pathreselection.

In Example 89, the subject matter of Example 88 optionally includeswherein change notification for the SCS includes a service identifier(ID), a flow ID, and a temporary mobile device ID to be used to identifya mobile termination (MT) for the first service flow of the UE.

In Example 90, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 88-89optionally include wherein the first event associated with the firstservice flow comprises a load balancing event or a user equipmentmobility event; and wherein the processing circuitry is further arrangedto: process a packet data unit (PDU) session establishment request froma first UE; initiate establishment of a first PDU session using a firstgateway in response to the PDU session establishment request prior toreceipt of the first service flow event trigger; and initiateestablishment of a second PDU session for the first UE.

In Example 91, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 88-90optionally include wherein the processing circuitry comprises basebandcircuitry of a server computer machine operating as the SNC.

Example 92 is an apparatus of a Service Capability Server (SCS)operating as an Application Server (AS) controller in communication witha long-term evolution (LTE) evolved packet core (EPC) network, themethod comprising: a memory; and processing a service flow setupnotification from a control plane device for a first service flow to afirst user equipment (UE);

means for configuring the first service flow from a first applicationserver to a first gateway in response to the service flow setupnotification; means for processing a service flow change notificationfrom the control plane device; and means for reconfiguring the firstservice flow to change the first application server to a secondapplication server to configure the first service flow from the secondapplication server to the first gateway in response to the service flowsetup notification.

In Example 93, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 91-92optionally include wherein the service flow setup notification comprisesuser plane (UP) setup notification information for the first UE.

Example 94 is a method for operation of a Service Capability Server(SCS), the apparatus comprising: processing a service flow setupnotification from a control plane device for a first service flow to afirst user equipment (UE); configuring the first service flow from afirst application server to a first gateway in response to the serviceflow setup notification; processing a service flow change notificationfrom the control plane device; and reconfiguring the first service flowto change the first application server to a second application server toconfigure the first service flow from the second application server tothe first gateway in response to the service flow setup notification.

Example 95 is a computer readable storage medium comprising instructionsthat, when executed by one or more processors, cause a machine toperform the operations of any method above.

In addition, alternate embodiments similar to the examples above mayinclude any embodiment above with repeated or intervening operations.

FIG. 8 shows an example UE, illustrated as a UE 800. The UE 800 may bean implementation of the UE 101, or any device described herein. The UE800 can include one or more antennas 808 configured to communicate witha transmission station, such as a base station (BS), an eNB, or anothertype of wireless wide area network (WWAN) access point. The UE 800 canbe configured to communicate using at least one wireless communicationstandard including 3GPP LTE, WiMAX, High Speed Packet Access (HSPA),Bluetooth, and WiFi. The UE 800 can communicate using separate antennasfor each wireless communication standard or shared antennas for multiplewireless communication standards. The UE 800 can communicate in a WLAN,a wireless personal area network (WPAN), and/or a WWAN.

FIG. 8 also shows a microphone 820 and one or more speakers 812 that canbe used for audio input and output to and from the UE 800. A displayscreen 804 can be a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen, or another typeof display screen such as an organic light emitting diode (OLED)display. The display screen 804 can be configured as a touch screen. Thetouch screen can use capacitive, resistive, or another type of touchscreen technology. An application processor 814 and a graphics processor818 can be coupled to an internal memory 816 to provide processing anddisplay capabilities. A non-volatile memory port 810 can also be used toprovide data I/O options to a user. The non-volatile memory port 810 canalso be used to expand the memory capabilities of the UE 800. A keyboard806 can be integrated with the UE 800 or wirelessly connected to the UE800 to provide additional user input. A virtual keyboard can also beprovided using the touch screen. A camera 822 located on the front(display screen) side or the rear side of the UE 800 can also beintegrated into a housing 802 of the UE 800.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an example computer systemmachine 900 upon which any one or more of the methodologies hereindiscussed can be run, and which may be used to implement the SNC 104,the UE 101, or any other device described herein. In various alternativeembodiments, the machine 900 operates as a standalone device or can beconnected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networkeddeployment, the machine 900 can operate in the capacity of either aserver or a client machine in server-client network environments, or itcan act as a peer machine in peer-to-peer (or distributed) networkenvironments. The machine 900 can be a personal computer (PC) that mayor may not be portable (e.g., a notebook or a netbook), a tablet, aset-top box (STB), a gaming console, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA),a mobile telephone or smartphone, a web appliance, a network router, anetwork switch, a network bridge, or any machine capable of executinginstructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be takenby that machine. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated,the term “machine” shall also be taken to include any collection ofmachines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets)of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein.

The example computer system machine 900 includes a processor 902 (e.g.,a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), orboth), a main memory 904, and a static memory 906, which communicatewith each other via an interconnect 908 (e.g., a link, a bus, etc.). Thecomputer system machine 900 can further include a video display device910, an alphanumeric input device 912 (e.g., a keyboard), and a userinterface (UI) navigation device 914 (e.g., a mouse). In one embodiment,the video display device 910, alphanumeric input device 912, and UInavigation device 914 are a touch screen display. The computer systemmachine 900 can additionally include a mass storage device 916 (e.g., adrive unit), a signal generation device 918 (e.g., a speaker), an outputcontroller 932, a power management controller 934, a network interfacedevice 920 (which can include or operably communicate with one or moreantennas 930, transceivers, or other wireless communications hardware),and one or more sensors 928, such as a GPS sensor, compass, locationsensor, accelerometer, or other sensor.

The mass storage device 916 includes a machine-readable medium 922 onwhich is stored one or more sets of data structures and instructions 924(e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of themethodologies or functions described herein. The instructions 924 canalso reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory904, static memory 906, and/or processor 902 during execution thereof bythe computer system machine 900, with the main memory 904, the staticmemory 906, and the processor 902 also constituting machine-readablemedia.

While the machine-readable medium 922 is illustrated in an exampleembodiment to be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” caninclude a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized ordistributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that storethe one or more instructions 924. The term “machine-readable medium”shall also be taken to include any tangible medium that is capable ofstoring, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the machineand that cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies of the present disclosure, or that is capable of storing,encoding, or carrying data structures utilized by or associated withsuch instructions.

The instructions 924 can further be transmitted or received over acommunications network 926 using a transmission medium via the networkinterface device 920 utilizing any one of a number of well-knowntransfer protocols (e.g., hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)). The term“transmission medium” shall be taken to include any medium that iscapable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution bythe machine, and includes digital or analog communications signals orother intangible media to facilitate communication of such software.

Various techniques, or certain aspects or portions thereof, may take theform of program code (i.e., instructions) embodied in tangible media,such as floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, hard drives, non-transitorycomputer-readable storage media, or any other machine-readable storagemedium wherein, when the program code is loaded into and executed by amachine, such as a computer, the machine becomes an apparatus forpracticing the various techniques. In the case of program code executionon programmable computers, the computing device may include a processor,a storage medium readable by the processor (including volatile andnon-volatile memory and/or storage elements), at least one input device,and at least one output device. The volatile and non-volatile memoryand/or storage elements may be a Random Access Memory (RAM), ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), flash drive, optical drive,magnetic hard drive, or other medium for storing electronic data. TheeNB and UE may also include a transceiver module, a counter module, aprocessing module, and/or a clock module or timer module. One or moreprograms that may implement or utilize the various techniques describedherein may use an application programming interface (API), reusablecontrols, and the like. Such programs may be implemented in a high-levelprocedural or object-oriented programming language to communicate with acomputer system. However, the program(s) may be implemented in assemblyor machine language, if desired. In any case, the language may be acompiled or interpreted language, and combined with hardwareimplementations.

Various embodiments may use 3GPP LTE/LTE-A, Institute of Electrical andElectronic Engineers (IEEE) 902.11, and Bluetooth communicationstandards. Various alternative embodiments may use a variety of otherWWAN, WLAN, and WPAN protocols and standards in connection with thetechniques described herein. These standards include, but are notlimited to, other standards from 3GPP (e.g., HSPA+, UMTS), IEEE 902.16(e.g., 902.16p), or Bluctooth (e.g., Bluetooth 8.0, or like standardsdefined by the Bluctooth Special Interest Group) standards families.Other applicable network configurations can be included within the scopeof the presently described communication networks. It will be understoodthat communications on such communication networks can be facilitatedusing any number of personal area networks (PANs), local area networks(LANs), and wide area networks (WANs), using any combination of wired orwireless transmission mediums.

Embodiments described herein may be implemented in a system using anysuitably configured hardware and/or software. FIG. 10 illustratescomponents of a UE 1000 in accordance with some embodiments. At leastsome of the components shown may be used in the UE 101 (or SNC 104)shown in FIG. 1 . The UE 1000 and other components may be configured touse the synchronization signals as described herein. The UE 1000 may beone of the UEs 101 shown in FIG. 1 and may be a stationary, non-mobiledevice or may be a mobile device. In some embodiments, the UE 1000 mayinclude application circuitry 1002, baseband circuitry 1004, RadioFrequency (RF) circuitry 1006, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 1008,and one or more antennas 1010, coupled together at least as shown. Atleast some of the baseband circuitry 1004, RF circuitry 1006, and FEMcircuitry 1008 may form a transceiver. In some embodiments, othernetwork elements, such as the eNBs of RAN 102, may contain some or allof the components shown in FIG. 10 .

The application circuitry 1002 may include one or more applicationprocessors. For example, the application circuitry 1002 may includecircuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core ormulti-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination ofgeneral-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphicsprocessors, application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupledwith and/or may include memory/storage and may be configured to executeinstructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applicationsand/or operating systems to run on the UE 1000.

The baseband circuitry 1004 may include circuitry such as, but notlimited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Thebaseband circuitry 1004 may include one or more bascband processorsand/or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receivesignal path of the RF circuitry 1006 and to generate baseband signalsfor a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1006. The basebandcircuitry 1004 may interface with the application circuitry 1002 forgeneration and processing of the baseband signals and for controllingoperations of the RF circuitry 1006. For example, in some embodiments,the baseband circuitry 1004 may include a second generation (2G)baseband processor 1004 a, third generation (3G) baseband processor 1004b, fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 1004 c, and/or otherbaseband processor(s) 1004d for other existing generations, generationsin development, or generations to be developed in the future (e.g.,fifth generation (5G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 1004 (e.g., one ormore of the bascband processors 1004 a-d) may handle various radiocontrol functions that enable communication with one or more radionetworks via the RF circuitry 1006. The radio control functions mayinclude, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation,encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments,modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 1004 mayinclude FFT, precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demappingfunctionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of thebaseband circuitry 1004 may include convolution, tail-bitingconvolution, turbo, Viterbi, and/or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC)encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulationand encoder/decoder functionality arc not limited to these examples andmay include other suitable functionality in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1004 may include elements ofa protocol stack such as, for example, elements of an evolved universalterrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) protocol including, forexample, physical (PHY), media access control (MAC), radio link control(RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), and/or radio resourcecontrol (RRC) elements. A central processing unit (CPU) 1004 e of thebaseband circuitry 1004 may be configured to run elements of theprotocol stack for signaling of the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP, and/or RRClayers. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1004 may include oneor more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSPs) 1004 f. The audioDSP(s) 1004 f may be or include elements for compression/decompressionand echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elementsin other embodiments. Components of the baseband circuitry 1004 may besuitably combined in a single chip or a single chipset, or disposed on asame circuit board in some embodiments. In some embodiments, some or allof the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 1004 and theapplication circuitry 1002 may be implemented together, such as, forexample, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1004 may provide forcommunication compatible with one or more radio technologies. Forexample, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1004 may supportcommunication with an EUTRAN and/or other wireless metropolitan areanetworks (WMAN), a WLAN, or a WPAN. Embodiments in which the basebandcircuitry 1004 is configured to support radio communications of morethan one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode basebandcircuitry. In some embodiments, the UE 1000 can be configured to operatein accordance with communication standards or other protocols orstandards, including Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers(IEEE) 802.16 wireless technology (WiMax), IEEE 802.11 wirelesstechnology (WiFi) including IEEE 802.11 ad, which operates in the 80 GHzmillimeter wave spectrum, or various other wireless technologies such asglobal system for mobile communications (GSM), enhanced data rates forGSM evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE radio access network (GERAN), universalmobile telecommunications system (UMTS), UMTS terrestrial radio accessnetwork (UTRAN), or other 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, etc., technologies eitheralready developed or to be developed.

The RF circuitry 1006 may enable communication with wireless networksusing modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. Invarious embodiments, the RF circuitry 1006 may include switches,filters, amplifiers, etc., to facilitate communication with the wirelessnetwork. The RF circuitry 1006 may include a receive signal path whichmay include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEMcircuitry 1008 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry1004. The RF circuitry 1006 may also include a transmit signal pathwhich may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided bythe baseband circuitry 1004 and provide RF output signals to the FEMcircuitry 1008 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 1006 may include a receive signalpath and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the RFcircuitry 1006 may include mixer circuitry 1006 a, amplifier circuitry1006 b, and filter circuitry 1006 c. The transmit signal path of the RFcircuitry 1006 may include the filter circuitry 1006 c and the mixercircuitry 1006 a. The RF circuitry 1006 may also include synthesizercircuitry 1006 d for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixercircuitry 1006 a of the receive signal path and the transmit signalpath. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the receivesignal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received fromthe FEM circuitry 1008 based on the synthesized frequency provided bythe synthesizer circuitry 1006 d. The amplifier circuitry 1006 b may beconfigured to amplify the down-converted signals, and the filtercircuitry 1006 c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter(BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-convertedsignals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals maybe provided to the baseband circuitry 1004 for further processing. Insome embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequencybaseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In someembodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the receive signal path maycomprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is notlimited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the transmit signalpath may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on thesynthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 1006 d togenerate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 1008. The basebandsignals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 1004 and may befiltered by the filter circuitry 1006 c. The filter circuitry 1006 c mayinclude a low-pass filter (LPF), although the scope of the embodimentsis not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the receive signalpath and the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the transmit signal path mayinclude two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadraturedownconversion and/or upconversion respectively. In some embodiments,the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the receive signal path and the mixercircuitry 1006 a of the transmit signal path may include two or moremixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley imagerejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006 a of thereceive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the transmitsignal path may be arranged for direct downconversion and/or directupconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry1006 a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1006 a of thetransmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input basebandsignals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of theembodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternateembodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signalsmay be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RFcircuitry 1006 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) anddigital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry1004 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RFcircuitry 1006.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may beprovided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope ofthe embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1006 d may be afractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although thescope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect, as other typesof frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, the synthesizercircuitry 1006 d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequencymultiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with afrequency divider.

The synthesizer circuitry 1006 d may be configured to synthesize anoutput frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the RFcircuitry 1006 based on a frequency input and a divider control input.In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1006 d may be afractional N/N+1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltagecontrolled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Dividercontrol input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 1004 orthe application circuitry 1002 depending on the desired outputfrequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may bedetermined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by theapplication circuitry 1002.

The synthesizer circuitry 1006 d of the RF circuitry 1006 may include adivider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phaseaccumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulusdivider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phaseaccumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured todivide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry out)to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, theDLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phasedetector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments,the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Ndequal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in thedelay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to helpensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1006 d may be configuredto generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in otherembodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrierfrequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrierfrequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and dividercircuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency withmultiple different phases with respect to each other. In someembodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (f_(LO)). Insome embodiments, the RF circuitry 1006 may include an IQ/polarconverter.

The FEM circuitry 1008 may include a receive signal path, which mayinclude circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from theone or more antennas 1010, amplify the received signals, and provide theamplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 1006 forfurther processing. The FEM circuitry 1008 may also include a transmitsignal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signalsfor transmission provided by the RF circuitry 1006 for transmission byone or more of the one or more antennas 1010.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 1008 may include a Tx/Rx switchto switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEMcircuitry 1008 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signalpath. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 1008 may include alow-noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify received RF signals and provide theamplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry1006). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 1008 may include apower amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by theRF circuitry 1006), and one or more filters to generate RF signals forsubsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or moreantennas 1010).

In some embodiments, the UE 1000 may include additional elements suchas, for example, a memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, and/orinput/output (I/O) interface as described in more detail below. In someembodiments, the UE 1000 described herein may be part of a portablewireless communication device, such as a personal digital assistant(PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wireless communicationcapability, a web tablet, a wireless telephone, a smartphone, a wirelessheadset, a pager, an instant messaging device, a digital camera, anaccess point, a television, a medical device (e.g., a heart ratemonitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), or another device that mayreceive and/or transmit information wirelessly. In some embodiments, theUE 1000 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable userinteraction with the system and/or peripheral component interfacesdesigned to enable peripheral component interaction with the system. Forexample, the UE 1000 may include one or more of a keyboard, a keypad, atouchpad, a display, a sensor, a non-volatile memory port, a universalserial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power supply interface, one ormore antennas, a graphics processor, an application processor, aspeaker, a microphone, and other I/O components. The display may be anLCD or LED screen including a touch screen. The sensor may include agyro sensor, an accelerometer, a proximity sensor, an ambient lightsensor, and a positioning unit. The positioning unit may communicatewith components of a positioning network, e.g., a global positioningsystem (GPS) satellite.

The antennas 1010 may comprise one or more directional oromnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas,monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas,or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. Insome multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas1010 may be effectively separated to benefit from spatial diversity andthe different channel characteristics that may result.

Although the UE 1000 is illustrated as having several separatefunctional elements, one or more of the functional elements may becombined and may be implemented by combinations of software-configuredelements, such as processing elements including digital signalprocessors (DSPs), and/or other hardware elements. For example, someelements may comprise one or more microprocessors, DSPs,field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), andcombinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing atleast the functions described herein. In some embodiments, thefunctional elements may refer to one or more processes operating on oneor more processing elements.

Examples, as described herein, may include, or may operate on, logic ora number of components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules are tangibleentities (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operations andmay be configured or arranged in a certain manner. In an example,circuits may be arranged (e.g., internally or with respect to externalentities such as other circuits) in a specified manner as a module. Inan example, the whole or part of one or more computer systems (e.g., astandalone, client, or server computer system) or one or more hardwareprocessors may be configured by firmware or software (e.g.,instructions, an application portion, or an application) as a modulethat operates to perform specified operations. In an example, thesoftware may reside on a communication device-readable medium. In anexample, the software, when executed by the underlying hardware of themodule, causes the hardware to perform the specified operations.

Accordingly, the term “module” is understood to encompass a tangibleentity, be that an entity that is physically constructed, specificallyconfigured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily (e.g., transitorily)configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a specified manner or toperform part or all of any operations described herein. Consideringexamples in which modules are temporarily configured, each of themodules need not be instantiated at any one moment in time. For example,where the modules comprise a general-purpose hardware processorconfigured using software, the general-purpose hardware processor may beconfigured as respective different modules at different times. Softwaremay accordingly configure a hardware processor, for example, toconstitute a particular module at one instance of time and to constitutea different module at a different instance of time.

While the communication device-readable medium is illustrated as asingle medium, the term “communication device-readable medium” mayinclude a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized ordistributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) configuredto store the one or more instructions.

The term “communication device-readable medium” may include any mediumthat is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions forexecution by the communication device and that cause the communicationdevice to perform any one or more of the techniques of the presentdisclosure, or that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying datastructures used by or associated with such instructions. Non-limitingcommunication device-readable medium examples may include solid-statememories, and optical and magnetic media. Specific examples ofcommunication device-readable media may include: non-volatile memory,such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., EPROM, Electrically ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices;magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks;magneto-optical disks; RAM; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. In someexamples, communication device-readable media may include non-transitorycommunication device-readable media. In some examples, communicationdevice-readable media may include communication device-readable mediathat is not a transitory propagating signal.

The instructions may further be transmitted or received over acommunications network using a transmission medium via a networkinterface device utilizing any one of a number of transfer protocols(e.g., frame relay, internet protocol (IP), transmission controlprotocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP), hypertext transferprotocol (HTTP), etc.). Example communication networks may include aLAN, a WAN, a packet data network (c.g., the Internet), mobile telephonenetworks (e.g., cellular networks), Plain Old Telephone (POTS) networks,and wireless data networks (e.g., Institute of Electrical andElectronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards known as Wi-Fi®,IEEE 802.16 family of standards known as WiMax®), IEEE 802.15.4 familyof standards, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) family of standards, aUniversal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) family of standards,or peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, among others. In an example, the networkinterface device may include one or more physical jacks (e.g., Ethernet,coaxial, or phone jacks) or one or more antennas to connect to thecommunications network. In an example, the network interface device mayinclude a plurality of antennas to wirelessly communicate usingsingle-input multiple-output (SIMO), MIMO, or multiple-inputsingle-output (MISO) techniques. In some examples, the network interfacedevice may wirelessly communicate using Multiple User MIMO techniques.The term “transmission medium” shall be taken to include to anyintangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carryinginstructions for execution by the communication device, and includesdigital or analog communications signals or other intangible media tofacilitate communication of such software.

In some systems, an eNB may have multiple antennas that may be used invarious groupings and with various signal modifications for eachgrouping to produce a plurality of APs. Each AP may be defined for oneor more antennas. Each AP may correspond to a different transmissionsignal direction. Using the different APs, the eNB may transmit multiplelayers with codebook-based or non-codebook-based precoding techniques.Each AP may correspond to a beam that transmits AP-specific CSI-RSsignals. The UE may contain a plurality of receive antennas that may beused selectively to create Rx beamforming. Rx beamforming may be used toincrease the receive antenna (beamforming) gain for the direction(s) onwhich desired signals are received, and to suppress interference fromneighboring cells. Fast Rx beam refinement, in which the Rx beamdirection is dynamically adjusted in response to the channel conditionsmeasured by the UE, is desirable from a performance standpoint.

This may be particularly desirable with use of the high-frequency bandsaround, for example, 28 GHz, 37 GHz, 39 GHz, and 84-71 GHz, used inconjunction with carrier aggregation, which may permit networks tocontinue to service the never-ending hunger for data delivery. Theincreased beamforming gain in this frequency range may permit the UE andeNB to compensate for the increasingly likely event of severe pathlossand suppress mutual user interference, leading to an increase in systemcapacity and coverage.

Embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination of hardware,firmware, and software. Embodiments may also be implemented asinstructions stored on a computer-readable storage device, which may beread and executed by at least one processor to perform the operationsdescribed herein. A computer-readable storage device may include anynon-transitory mechanism for storing information in a form readable by amachine (e.g., a computer). For example, a computer-readable storagedevice may include read-only memory (ROM), RAM, magnetic disk storagemedia, optical storage media, flash-memory devices, and other storagedevices and media. Some embodiments may include one or more processorsand may be configured with instructions stored on a computer-readablestorage device.

Although an embodiment has been described with reference to specificexample embodiments, it will be evident that various modifications andchanges may be made to these embodiments without departing from thebroader scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the specificationand drawings arc to be regarded in an illustrative rather than arestrictive sense. The accompanying drawings that form a part hereofshow, by way of illustration, and not of limitation, specificembodiments in which the subject matter may be practiced. Theembodiments illustrated are described in sufficient detail to enablethose skilled in the art to practice the teachings disclosed herein.Other embodiments may be utilized and derived therefrom, such thatstructural and logical substitutions and changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of this disclosure. This Detailed Description,therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope ofvarious embodiments is defined only by the appended claims, along withthe full range of equivalents to which such claims arc entitled.

Such embodiments of the subject matter may be referred to herein,individually and/or collectively, by the term “embodiments” merely forconvenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope of thisapplication to any single inventive concept if more than one is in factdisclosed. Thus, although specific embodiments have been illustrated anddescribed herein, it should be appreciated that any arrangementcalculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for thespecific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to cover any andall adaptations or variations of various embodiments. Combinations ofthe above embodiments, and other embodiments not specifically describedherein, will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing theabove description.

In this document, the terms “a” or “an” are used, as is common in patentdocuments, to include one or more than one, independent of any otherinstances or usages of “at least one” or “one or more.” In thisdocument, the term “or” is used to refer to a nonexclusive or, such that“A or B” includes “A but not B,” “B but not A,” and “A and B,” unlessotherwise indicated. In this document, the terms “including” and “inwhich” are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms“comprising” and “wherein.” Also, in the following claims, the terms“including” and “comprising” are open-ended; that is, a system, UE,article, composition, formulation, or process that includes elements inaddition to those listed after such a term in a claim arc still deemedto fall within the scope of that claim. Moreover, in the followingclaims, the terms “first,” “second,” and “third,” etc., are used merelyas labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements ontheir objects.

The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b), requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to quicklyascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted withthe understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit thescope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing DetailedDescription, it can be seen that various features are grouped togetherin a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure.This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting anintention that the claimed embodiments require more features than areexpressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claimsreflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of asingle disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are herebyincorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing onits own as a separate embodiment.

1-15. (canceled)
 16. A method to be performed by a Software DefinedNetwork (SDN) Network Controller (SNC) comprising: configuring a routingpolicy for one or more data gateways (DGWs), wherein the routing policyis to indicate a second DGW to take over service, from a first DGW, of aservice flow of a user equipment (UE), wherein the first DGW and thesecond DGW are among the one or more DGWs; initiating a notificationprocedure including sending a request to perform the notificationprocedure to a services capability server (SCS) via a servicesinterworking function (services-IWF); and transmitting a NetworkConfiguration Information Notification (NCIN) message to the SCS,wherein the NCL' message includes a service identifier (ID), flow ID,and temporary mobile device ID to be used to identify a mobiletermination (MT) for the service flow of the UE.
 17. The method of claim16, wherein the SCS is to determine, based on the NCIN message, tochange a serving Application Server (AS) for the service flow to asecond AS from a first AS, wherein the second AS is associated with thesecond DGW; wherein the SCS is to retrieve service flow-relatedinformation from the second AS and transfer the service flow-relatedinformation to the first AS so as to continue the service of the serviceflow, and wherein the first AS is to start o transmit mobile-terminatedpackets via the first DGW.
 18. The method of claim 17, furthercomprising: detecting a trigger event, wherein the initiating is basedon the trigger event, and wherein the trigger event includes receiving,by the SNC, one or more packets from the first DGW which originallyserved the service flow requested by the first AS, wherein the one ormore packets are to be sent by the first DGW due to a failure; analyzingthe one or more packets; and providing, or causing to provide, a latestboundary DGW address to the SCS in the NCIN message, wherein the serviceID, flow ID, and temporary mobile device ID are used to useable toidentify the MT for the service flow of the UE; wherein, based on thelatest boundary DGW address in the NCIN message, the SCS is to determineto change a serving AS from the first AS to the second AS, wherein thelatest boundary DGW address is the second DGW, and the SCS is toretrieve service flow-related information from the first AS and transferthe service flow-related information to the second AS; and wherein thesecond AS is to send an MT service request via the SCS to obtain latestinformation of the latest boundary DGW address before the latestboundary DGW address begins transmission of MT packets.
 19. The methodof claim 16, further comprising: receiving, from the SCS or a firstApplication Server (AS) of a plurality of ASs, a request messageindicating a service ID, the flow ID, the temporary mobile device ID,policy information type, and/or a response type; in response to adetermination that the response type indicates there is a change,setting a notification flag associated with the service ID and the flowID; determining new routing polices for the one or more DGWs based on areal-time network load status; updating a reconfiguration by updatingrouting policies to the new routing policies; determining whether thenotification flag is set for the service flow and whether an associatedboundary DGW has changed; and transmitting the NCIN message when thenotification flag is set for the service flow and when the associatedboundary DGW has changed.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein thetransmitting the NCIN message comprises: transmitting a response messageincluding the service ID, the temporary mobile device ID, and the policyinformation type to the services-IWF to provide policy information forthe for a latest boundary DGW address to the SCS, wherein; the serviceID, the flow ID, and the temporary mobile device ID are used to identifyan MT service flow of the service; in response to a Routing PolicesUpdate Response message, a Complete message is received from theservices-IWF with an optional indicator indicating whether thenotification flag should be kept active to set the notification flag asinactive; the service ID indicates an identity for a requested service,which is global unique or unique within an operator domain in a PublicLand Mobile Network (PLMN); the flow ID indicates an identity of theservice flow for the service which is allocated by the SNC whenestablishing the service flow of the service; the temporary mobiledevice ID is a temporary identity allocated by an operator domain whichis unique within a serving PLMN; the policy information type indicates atype of policy information that is requested; the response typeindicates a type of response that the SCS and/or AS requests includingan instant response or response only when there are any changes torequested policy information, and the policy information indicates thelatest boundary DGW address.
 21. The method of claim 20, wherein theresponse message includes parameters to indicate a validity period ofprovided network configuration information, wherein a validity timer isto indicate an allowable time to apply a network configuration, andwherein the validity period is to indicate a scheduled time for MTpacket transmission to request the UE to send MT packets via theprovided network configuration information at the scheduled time. 22-23.(canceled)
 24. The method of claim 16, wherein the NCIN comprises a userplane (UP) setup notification.
 25. An apparatus, comprising: a processorconfigured to cause a control plane device to: configure a routingpolicy for one or more data gateways (DGWs), wherein the routing policyis to indicate a second DGW to take over service, from a first DGW, of aservice flow of a user equipment (UE), wherein the first DGW and thesecond DGW are among the one or more DGWs; initiate a notificationprocedure including sending a request to perform the notificationprocedure to a services capability server (SCS) via a servicesinterworking function (services-IWF); and transmit a NetworkConfiguration Information Notification (NCIN) message to the SCS,wherein the NCIN message includes a service identifier (ID), flow ID,and temporary mobile device ID to be used to identify a mobiletermination (MT) for the service flow of the UE.
 26. The apparatus ofclaim 25, wherein the SCS is to determine, based on the NCIN message, tochange a serving Application Server (AS) for the service flow to asecond AS from a first AS, wherein the second AS is associated with thesecond DGW; wherein the SCS is to retrieve service flow-relatedinformation from the second AS and transfer the service flow-relatedinformation to the first AS so as to continue the service of the serviceflow, and wherein the first AS is to start to transmit mobile-terminatedpackets via the first DGW.
 27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein theprocessor is further configured to cause the control plane device to:detect a trigger event, wherein the initiation is based on the triggerevent, and wherein the trigger event includes receiving one or morepackets from the first DGW which originally served the service flowrequested by the first AS, wherein the one or more packets are to besent by the first DGW due to a failure: analyze the one or more packets;and provide a latest boundary DGW address to the SCS in the NCINmessage, wherein the service ID, flow ID, and temporary mobile device IDare useable to identify the MT for the service flow of the UE.
 28. Theapparatus of claim 27, wherein: based on the latest boundary DGW addressin the NCIN message, the SCS is to determine to change a serving AS fromthe first AS to the second AS; the latest boundary DGW address is thesecond DGW; the SCS is to retrieve service flow-related information fromthe first AS and transfer the service flow-related information to thesecond AS; and the second AS is to send an MT service request via theSCS to obtain latest information of the latest boundary DGW addressbefore the latest boundary DGW address begins transmission of MTpackets.
 29. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to cause the control plane device to: receive, from the SCSor a first Application Server (AS) of a plurality of ASs, a requestmessage indicating a service ID, the flow ID, the temporary mobiledevice ID, policy information type, and/or a response type; and inresponse to a determination that the response type indicates there is achange, set a notification flag associated with the service ID and theflow ID.
 30. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to cause the control plane device to: determine new routingpolices for the one or more DGWs based on a real-time network loadstatus; update a reconfiguration by updating routing policies to the newrouting policies; determine whether the notification flag is set for theservice flow and whether an associated boundary DGW has changed; andtransmit the NCIN message when the notification flag is set for theservice flow and when the associated boundary DGW has changed.
 31. Theapparatus of claim 30, wherein to transmit the NCIN message comprises:transmitting a response message including the service ID, the temporarymobile device ID, and the policy information to type the services-IWF toprovide policy information for a latest boundary DGW address to the SCS,wherein: the service ID, the flow ID, and the temporary mobile device IDare used to identify an MT service flow of the service; in response to aRouting Polices Update Response message, a Complete message is receivedfrom the services-IWF with an optional indicator indicating whether thenotification flag should be kept active to set the notification flag asinactive; the service ID indicates an identity for a requested service,which is global unique or unique within an operator domain in a PublicLand Mobile Network (PLMN); the flow ID indicates an identity of theservice flow for the service which is allocated by the control planedevice when establishing the service flow of the service; the temporarymobile device ID is a temporary identity allocated by an operator domainwhich is unique within a serving PLMN; the policy information typeindicates a type of policy information that is requested; the responsetype indicates a type of response that the SCS and/or AS requestsincluding an instant response or response only when there are anychanges to requested policy information; and the policy informationindicates the latest boundary DGW address.
 32. The apparatus of claim31, wherein the response message includes parameters to indicate avalidity period of provided network configuration information, wherein avalidity timer is to indicate an allowable time to apply a networkconfiguration, and wherein the validity period is to indicate ascheduled time for MT packet transmission to request the UE to send MTpackets via the provided network configuration information at thescheduled time.
 33. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the NCINcomprises a user plane (UP) setup notification.
 34. The apparatus ofclaim 25, wherein the control plane device comprises an entity of a longterm evolution core.
 35. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the controlplane device comprises an entity of a next generation core.
 36. Acontrol plane device, comprising: an interface; and a processor operablycoupled to the interface and configured to cause the control planedevice to: configure a routing policy for one or more data gateways(DGWs), wherein the routing policy is to indicate a second DGW to takeover service, from a first DGW, of a service flow of a user equipment(UE), wherein the first DGW and the second DGW are among the one or moreDGWs; initiate a notification procedure including sending a request toperform the notification procedure to a services capability server (SCS)via a services interworking function (services-IWF); and transmit aNetwork Configuration Information Notification (NCIN) message to theSCS, wherein the NCIN message includes a service identifier (ID), flowID, and temporary mobile device ID to be used to identify a mobiletermination (MT) for the service flow of the UE.
 37. The control planedevice of clam 36, wherein the control plane device comprises an entityof a next generation core.